Sunday, 30 April 2017

'Julia!
Julia! Bernardo! Where are you,' shouted several people at the same
time.

'Juuuuliaaaah!...Julia,
honey, tell us where you are!' Cried
Mother Galia in her own language. She was so worried! Nobody had
seen Julia since the sandstorm two days earlier.
Julia
was her
only child. Her heart felt very heavy in her chest for she knew the
caravan could not wait any longer.

A bell rings,
breaking
the silence of the desert. Dling-dlong-dling! It was the Grand
Master calling all the workers to make a statement. Dling-dlong! It
doesn't take long for
a circle to
be
formed with all the acrobats, jugglers, dancers, clowns, the lion
tamer, the fire eater, the bullet man, the fortune teller and many
other circus workers.

'Very
well, then,
everybody's
here. We
can start.
Despite our efforts, we have not yet been able to find Monkey
Bernardo or Camela Julia. Unfortunately, we cannot delay
our departure
any longer. Wehave
a three-day-journey to get to our
next destination
and we cannot stay here in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of
the desert, otherwise we might
run
out of supplies, water and food for us and our animals. Let's load
up the camels and the wagons...We leave in two hours.’

Mother
Galia's eyes filled with tears. She knew she could not do anything
about it. She would have to follow the rest of the caravan. But
Mother Galia was a strong and sensible person, so she decided there
and then that if they did not find Camel Julia on the way, she would
return to fetch her calf and, with a bit of luck, her little friend,
Monkey Bernardo.

Two
hours later the caravan of the Fantastic Circus was on its way.

♥

A
few metres away from where the caravanhad
stood, two dunes seemed tocome
to life. Suddenly they got taller and began to jingle from side to
side. No,
they
were not dunes. It was not sand. It was a small camel that, after
waking up, noticed that she was completely covered with sand.

She
got up, looked around, and recalled what had happened. Two sleeps
ago, she had got up in the middle of the night to go and do a wee-wee
behind a sand hill and, without any warning, the wind had sprung up,
becoming angrier and angrier by
the minute.
As soon as she had finished doing what she had gone there to do,
she saw that she was completely buried under the sand and that she
could not get out on her own. She remembered calling out to her
mother.

'Mother
Galia! Mother Galia!' but the wind was so strong that it carried
the words away in the opposite direction of where the caravan and her
mother were.

At
first Camel Julia was scared and she even cried a little, until she
finally fell asleep and slept the longest sleep she had ever slept.
She had opened her eyes a bit more than once. One of those times
must
have been during
the day, since she had been able to see the pale sand around her
nose; the other time had surely been night time, because she had not
been able to see even the tip of her nose. Then she had fallen
asleep
once again.

She
slept until the very moment in this story when the two dunes seemed
to come to life. It was Camel Julia who had grown tired of lying
under the sand and began to force her legs to get up. Perhaps the
people at the circus and Mother Galia had not seen her, for in the
desert the two humps could easily be mistaken for two little dunes.

Well,
where were we? Ah, yes, Camel Julia got up, shook herself hard, and
walked towards where she remembered she had left the circus
caravan.

'Oh
no! Mother Gaaaaaaaaaalia! Where is everyone?' cried the little camel
as loud as she could.

There
was nothing she could do. There was no one in sight.

Now
boys and girls just come out and say it, come on. You must be
thinking that Camela Julia was so desperate that she threw herself on
the ground crying and screaming and kicking her legs. You're
expecting that, aren't you? Well, then, I must tell you that none of
this happened.

Camel
Julia was a strong and smart little camel and she remembered well
what her mother had taught her, 'Never despair.
There is always a way out. Pay good attention to what is going on
around you and learn from what the elders say.'

'That's
it!' thought Camel Julia. 'The Grand Master said we
were going
East; that was
where
the small town
was; that is where we'd be setting up the circus tent next…And the
sun always rises on our right, in the East, and it sets on our left,
in the West,’she
also remembered hearing someone say one day.

'The
sun rose a few hours ago, so if I go towards the sun, I must be
heading in the right direction.' she said.

♥

'Julia!'
shouted Monkey Bernardo out of nowhere.

'Ahhhhhhhh!
What a fright!' said Camela Julia jumping backwards.

'I'm
sorry my friend. I didn't mean to scare you, but I was so glad to
see you that it didn't occur
to me that you'd get a fright. Tell me, where's the rest of the
gang?'

'Bernardo!
I'm so glad to see you. I don't know where everyone is either. Two
nights ago there was such a frightful gale that I was trapped under
the sand. You can't imagine how hard it was to shake it off. And
you? What are you doing here all by
yourself?'

'As
I'm quite light the wind carried me
to that place over there.
I was disoriented for a while, you know. Anyway, it's good to see
you. But where are the others?

'I
don't know.' said Camel Julia, wiping a tear from the corner of her
eye. 'They must've set off again. I was just thinking about setting
off myself, in that direction. Right now we must walk towards the
Sun. In the afternoon, we should change direction to keep on track,
I mean, to keep walking towards East.’

'Yeah,
you're right. There's no point staying here.

♥

Not
long after, Monkey Bernardo had already fallen behind his friend.
His legs were so short that they got buried in the sand. As
you can imagine,
he was slowing them down. At that snail pace they
would
never get anywhere.

'Listen
to this riddle! How do you hide a camel in the desert?' asked Monkey
Bernardo, with his sense of humor back.

'Stop
goofing
off. I'm not in the mood for that,'
replied Camel Julia.

'Ha,
ha, ha! It's easy,' continued the monkey, ignoring his partner's
ill-humoured temper. 'You bury him
- or her - in
the sand so his humps are mistaken for dunes ... Ha, ha, ha.'

'Ha-ha-ha,'
chuckled Camel Julia to herself. It was actually a good hiding
place. She should say.

♥

Some
time later, a gust of wind blew strong carrying the monkey through
the air.

'Jump
on my back, in between my humps, Bernardo. You'll be more
protected.'

It
took a while before Monkey Bernardo could respond to his friend's
suggestion. Some sand had got into his mouth and he felt a little
distressed.

'Spit,
spit…Phew! I'm hungry, but sand is not what I had in mind for a
meal. But now, what I really need is some water to wash my mouth and
quench my thirst.' said Monkey Bernard, feeling somewhat anxious.

Camel
Julia did not say anything. She was worried about her friend. She
knew she could survive a long time without any food or water. After
all, what use were the two humps full of good fat, if not to feed the
body when it lacked food and that transparent liquid that was worth
gold in desert lands? Yes, she could survive for many days without a
problem, but not poor Monkey Bernardo! She did not want anything to
happen to her little friend, the only one she had at the moment, for
the others were in place unknown. She would have to find a cactus
quickly. She could crush it with her mouth and squeeze some liquid
out of it to help her friend.

Unfortunately,
there were no cactuses in sight. There was only sand around them.
Camel Julia was feeling really distressed and worried!

♥

'Bernardo!
Monkey Bernardo! Wake up. Look over there. Can you see that?
There are two huge cactuses over there. Hang on just a bit longer,
they're
only a few metres
away.' As soon as they reached the cactuses, Camel Julia turned her
neck round, grabbed her friend by the collar - yes, Bernardo Monkey
wore a shirt with collars for he was a chic monkey who danced in the
show to the sound of his owner's accordion - and dropped him gently
on the floor in front
of her.

As
she was opening her mouth to tear off a piece of the cactus, she
heard a strange, squeaky voice.

'Oh
dear! What are you doing? You're going to get prickly spikes stuck
in your mouth, girl!'

But
Camela Julia had no time to lose. She had to squeeze some cactus
liquid into Monkey Bernardo's mouth before something bad happened to
him. And this is what happened. Squish!
Fssst!
And
a gush of water went straight into the monkey's dried mouth.

'Hummm...It
tastes so good! Thank you Julia. If it hadn't been for you, I'd
probably have died of thirst.' said Monkey Bernardo gratefully. 'But
who is this...?'

'Hello.
I'm Mayra, a desert lizard. Your friend is a little crazy, you
know? She tore that huge piece of cactus with her mouth!'

'Hello,
I'm Monkey Bernardo and this is my friend and savior, Camel Julia.'

'Sorry
if I didn't speak to you sooner, but my friend was in trouble
and I
had to help him as soon as possible. And don't worry, can you see
inside my mouth?' said Camela Júlia, opening her mouth wide, as if
she were at the dentist.

'Okay,'
answered Lizard Mayra, tentatively, not sure what she should be
examining.

'Do
you see how thick the skin in my mouth is? It's so thick, that the
spines
of cactuses cannot prick me. In fact, cactuses
are part of my staple diet. My mother says they are good for us...'

'...and
where is your mother?' interrupted Lizard Mayra. But she soon
regretted asking the question when she saw Camel Julia's three
strange eyelids shutting down slowly with sadness: the first one,
then the other and finally the last one. How strange, she thought
and then added, 'Oh, sorry, I didn't want to make you sad.

'Do
you remember the sandstorm two days ago?' asked Macaco Bernardo.
'Because of it Camel Julia and I were separated from our group.
We're heading East
to try and find them.em.

"Well,
my friends. You'll find them for sure. The important thing is not
to lose hope...Okay, now I'm going to continue hunting for my
dinner,'
said Lizard Mayra. She turned away and went in search of some
scorpion or snake to take home for dinner.

♥

It
was nightfall when the two desert travellers decided to call
it a day.
They would never find their way forward with the mere light of the
stars.

Monkey
Bernardo found some dry blades of grass and some sort of ants for
dinner. It was not a tasty dinner at all,
but
enough to fool his stomach.
Camel Julia had eaten the
cactus a little while back, so she was fine.

'We
should tuck in early so we can set off again at dawn.' said the wise
camel, taking the lead of their adventure.

'Julia?'
called the monkey in an embarrassed tone.

'Yes?'

'Do
you think I can cuddle against your neck? Nights in the desert can
get really cold. It's so strange, during the day you can hardly walk
in the sun because of the heat but…'

'Sure.
I'd actually like that. I usually, well, I used to snuggle against
my mother, amongst the rest of the flock, so I never used to feel
cold but now…'

'A
flock? Why on earth are you talking about a flock of birds now?'

'Oh,
Bernardo, you're always so distracted. Don't you remember learning
the collective nouns for groups of animals? A caravan or a flock is
a group of camels; a troop is a group of monkeys...then there’s a
pack of dogs; a herd of oxen, buffalo or elephants; a....'

'Okay,
I get it, I get it.' said the monkey, on the one hand feeling
slightly annoyed by the grammar lesson his friend was giving him, on
the other hand, proud to have such a smart friend. 'You know, Julia,
it's not that I'm not interested in learning, it's just sometimes
there are so many beautiful and interesting things around us that I
end up getting a tad sidetracked.'

'So
am I. Can you imagine what would have happened to me alone in this
desert? With the heat it makes during the day and the lack of water,
I would have turned into a slab of salt cod by now.'

'Oh,
Bernardo, you’re so silly sometimes.'

The
laughter of the two friends broke the silence of the night. Monkey
Bernardo was really funny. Salt cod! What a strange and hilarious
image!

♥

The
next morning Camela Julia and Bernardo Macaco woke up with the first
rays of sunlight. They got up slowly
and stretched
out their bodies in very amusing ways.
Since there was nothing to eat for breakfast, they set off
imediately
in the direction of the sun.

Though
it was really early the brightness
of
the sun was almost unbearable. It was way too bright. So bright
that poor Monkey Bernardo had to put his neck scarf over his eyes.

'This
morning
light is too intense for me.' he said. 'But
the
sunhine doesn’t
seem
to affect you so much, does it, Julia?'

'Oh,
Bernardo, that’s
beacause I'm
a desert animal.
I'm just better prepared for the weather here:
my
skin is so hard that the spines of cacti cannot pierce it. And have
you noticed the thick eyelashes I have?'

'Yes,
and you have 3 sets of
them,
too. Why is that?'

'Both
my eyelashes and my eyelids are used to prevent sand from coming into
my eyes. But I also think they protect mefrom
the sunlight.'

A
few minutes laterCamel
Julia’s
heart
began to beat faster. She blinked five times in a row to be sure of
what she was seeing. In the distance, she could see the silhouette
of another camel. But that walk. That walk, was strangely familiar.

'Bernardo,
Bernardo, quick
uncover your eyes! What do you see over there.'

'Hold
on. What? I can't see anything! What did you expect me to see?'
asked Monkey Bernardo, slightly annoyed at having to face the
sunlight again. 'Oh,
wait, I think I see something too. It's big and it looks like it's
running in our direction. I think it's going to attack us, run
Julia, run!'

'Oh
Mummy, I missed you so much! I thought I'd never see you again.
What happened?'

Half
an hour later, Mother Galia had told them her story and so had the
youngsters theirs. They were all so very happy.

'Now,
let's hurry up and see if we can catch up with the rest of the
caravan. It’s
behind that third dune.' said Mother Galia.

'And
are you sure that's really a sand dune and not a camel's hump?' asked
Monkey Bernardo cheekily.

'Bernardo!'shouted
Mother Galia and Camela Julia at the same time.

But
everyone had
a
good laugh. Laughing was good to relax after the tough times they
had been through.

'Moving
on...’
said Mother Galia wisely, 'let's
go and meet the rest of the caravan. I'm sure we'll all be having a
party before we resume our journey
to the next town.
Come on, my beautiful children, all's well that ends well!'

Sunday, 19 February 2017

Long
ago when animals used to speak, there was a palace in the Kingdom of
Flowers with a king, a queen, and a princess.

Despite
it's beautiful name – the Kingdom of Flowers – the people who
lived there were not very happy. Their misfortune had begun seven
years earlier, when Dragon Heavy-Foot moved to the nearby hills. He was
a huge dragon that made the ground tremble when he walked. But that
was not all! No, to keep him out of their houses, the elderly had to
comply with the dragon's demands: every three months a girl would
have to be delivered to him. No one knew what the dragon did to the
girls. They only knew that the girls were never seen again. It's
like they disappeared into thin air.

It
was once again time to give another girl to the dragon, and everyone
was even sadder than usual. There were only two girls left in the
kingdom: Princess Jessica and her best friend, Constance. The girls'
names were written on two pieces of paper and put inside a hat for a
name to be picked at random. The king's hands trembled as he unfolded
the slip of paper.

'Constance!'
said the king with a sad, shaky voice. He was also somewhat relieved
that his daughter had once again escaped the sacrifice. However,
she would only be safe for another three months.

'No!'
cried Princess Jessica. 'I'm going with Constance. No one will ever
split us up!'

And
that is what happened. Hand in hand, Princess Jessica and her best
friend, Constance, climbed up Dragon Heavy-Foot's mountain. To
soothe their fear, they decided to sing the song of the ducklings
that swam over the hills and far away and each time they returned
home there was always one missing, until there were none left ...
But when mother duck quacked out really loudly, all the the little
ducklings came swimming back.

When
they reached the dragon's cave, the two girls were not crying as the
other girls had been. This surprised Dragon Heavy-Foot who, for the
first time, spoke with his victims.

'Hmmmm!
I smell a rat!' said Dragon Heavy-Foot in an angry voice. 'This time
they've send me two of you, and you don't look in the least bit
scared. What are you up to?'

'Well,
you're wrong, Mr. Dragon!" replied Princess Jessica. 'We're the
last two girls from the Kingdom of Flowers, and I did not want
Constance to come alone. She is my best friend ...'

'That's
right. We're really close. We're also scared, but we're together...
and we have each other's backs.' added Constance.

'Well,
you both have long hair ... yum-yum ... Good! It looks like I'm
going to have a feast today!'

Clever
as she was, Princess Jessica noticed there was something strange
about the dragon's words, so she decided to ask him there and then to
clarify what he meant.

'Hmm-hmm,'
she said, clearing her throat. 'Excuse me, Mr. Dragon. What
difference does it make whether we've got short hair or long hair?
If you're going to eat us anyway, the length of our hair shouldn't
matter at all.'

'Ha!
Ha! Ha! What's your name, little girl?'

'Hey!
You mustn't talk to my friend like that.' said Constance, somewhat
astonished by the dragon's lack of courtesy to the princess.
'She's...'

'What
she means is that I'm Henry's cousin, have you met him?' interrupted
Princess Jessica, lying to the dragon. She thought it was better not
to tell him who she really was. 'My name is Jessica. And you still
haven't answered my question!'

'Who
on earth told you that I was going to eat you? I'm just interested
in your hair ...'

'But,
then, where are all the other girls who have been sent here?' asked
Princess Jessica feeling very intrigued.

'There's
a garden on the other side of my cave … You can find them there.
I do not know why, but they always cry when I gobble up their hair,
and then they do not want to go back home ...

'They
must be ashamed to go back looking like boys.' the princess said
softly and almost crying. She did not want to go back home with no
hair either.

'I
don't know anything about that.' All I know is that their hair is
long again when they decide to leave the cave, and I eat it up again
before they can escape …' On saying this, Dragon Heavy-Foot licks
his lips in anticipation of the beautiful double treat in front of
him and moves closer to the two girls.

'Halt!
said Princess Jessica in a stately tone. Then, in a more gentle and
humble tone she added, 'Just a few more questions ... if I may, Mr.
Dragon.'

Dragon
Heavy-Foot stopped and, for the first time in many centuries, smiled
from ear to ear. He found this little girl with a questioning tongue
quite amusing. No one had ever bothered to talk to him. For the
first time, he felt like he was actually socializing with other
beings.

'So
what is it this time?'

'Why
do you only eat the girls' hair and not the boys' or even the adults'
hair?'

'The
thing is... Hmmm … let me see if I can explain this. When I first
went down to your kingdom everyone used to run away from me and hid
in places I couldn't find them. Well, except for the girls. I found
them because I could smell their scent. You know, girls usually
smell better than boys, maybe because of the shampoo they use, I do
not know. They were just easier to find. Then, when the elderly
people of the land came to negotiate with me, they started sending me
only girls.'

'A-ha!
Since you only caught the girls, they must have thought you only
wanted them... Constance, I have a plan. Come on, stop crying! It's
okay, we'll let him eat our hair, then we'll go and get the other
girls and we''ll all go back home together!

'What
on earth are you saying? I don't want to be bald!'

'We
won't end up bald.' said the princess. 'We'll just have short hair.
Don't you go to the hairdresser's every once in a while? ... Look at
it this way, we'll be creating a new short-hair fashion. Anyway,
it'll soon grow back!' Then looking back at the dragon she began to
negotiate:

'You
heard that, didn't you, Mr. Dragon? You can eat our hair, but not
all of it. Then when we get back to my kingdom, I'll find a way to
send you a basket full of hair every week. Picture that, every
single week, a basket full of yummy hair! Had you explained your
situation properly to the elders of the kingdom, you would have had
hair to eat more regularly.'

'Come
again? You mean, a basket of hair per week?' asked the dragon.

'In
our kingdom there are hairdressers and barbers whose job it is to cut
people's hair." We all cut our hair regularly and willingly.

'And
what do you do hairdressers and barbers do with the hair that they've
cut?'

'That's
exactly what I'm trying to explain to you: we do not have much use
for it. Hair that's still in good condition can be used to make wigs
... otherwise, most of it goes straight into the garbage bin.'

'What?!?
I can't believe my ears!' said the dragon, putting his hands on his
head and shaking it in disbelief. 'How can you do such an awful
thing?'

'Well,
nobody knew you liked hair!' said Constance, with a sigh of relief.

And
that's how it all happened. As soon as the dragon ate their hair,
the two friends went to get the other girls, who now lived in the
garden on the other side of the dragon's cave. As soon as they saw
Princess Jessica, also with short hair, and they heard her plan, they
were all thrilled and full of hope.

It was singing the song of the little ducklings, that the group of girls descended the mountain, back to the warmth and protection of their parents, uncles, grandparents, brothers and cousins. A General Assembly was called and the little princess explained her plan to her parents, the King and Queen, and the rest of the population at he same time.What a simple solution to your problem! Everyone was very proud of the little princess who would one day become their fair and just queen.

'Just
one more thing,' said the little teary-eyed princess. 'I wasn't the
only brave one. If Constance hadn't been by my side, it might not
have been so easy to talk to Dragon Heavy-Foot. We backed each other
up, and I'm extremely grateful that she never let go of my hand. You
know, I think I've learnt a very important lesson: we may be able to
solve our problems on our own, but it's together that we find the
courage to face them.

'Long
live our Princess!' cried out the subjects of the Kingdom of Flowers.
'Long live our Princess and her faithful friend Constance!'

And
it must have been at this point in time that a new popular saying
emerged: "Out of the mouths of children comes the wisdom of the
world."

About me:

Born in Mozambique, she grew up in South Africa and has travelled widely, both as a student and a teacher of English as a Foreign Language.
Nasceu em Moçambique, cresceu na África do Sul e tem viajado extensamente, tanto como estudante como professora de Inglês como língua estrangeira.